Despite being barred from taking Holy Communion in her home city of San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) received the Eucharist at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C.
On Friday, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone issued a letter saying Pelosi should not present herself to a priest for Communion at Mass because of her stance on abortion, namely her calls to protect access to abortion at the federal level.
The speaker reportedly found open reception at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown Sunday. The church is the same parish President Joe Biden has been known to attend.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., said Archbishop Wilton Gregory does not have plans to implement Cordileone’s ban.
DC ARCHDIOCESE ACCIDENTALLY SENDS BLUNT RESPONSE ON PELOSI COMMUNION BAN
“Cardinal Gregory has no new comment about the issue of Catholic politicians receiving Communion,” Washington, D.C., Archdiocese spokeswoman Patricia Zapor wrote. “The actions of Archbishop Cordileone are his decision to make in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Cardinal Gregory has not instructed the priests of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to refuse Communion to anyone.”
The Washington Archdiocese had intended to ignore the Washington Examiner’s request for comment but mistakenly sent a blunt response acknowledging that the public, too, desires Gregory to speak out against Pelosi’s pro-abortion position.
“Just sharing for you to know what comes in,” the email unintentionally sent to the Washington Examiner stated. “Email since Saturday, when I last checked the comms inbox has just been a couple of random people wanting to tell the Cardinal to bring down the hammer on Pelosi. Aside from Jack Jenkins at RNS, this is the only new media inquiry. It will be ignored, too.”
Rev. John Beal, a canon lawyer and Catholic University of America professor, said that Cordileone’s ban does not apply outside his scope of influence in California.
“It applies only to ministers, ordained and non-ordained, in the Archdiocese of San Francisco,” Beal told Religious News Service. “It does not apply outside the Archdiocese.”
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Bishops from Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin have since joined Cordileone’s strong rebuke against Pelosi.